Innistrad: Crimson Vow proved to be a bit of a controversial set to a lot of players. Midnight Hunt was a bit of a stinker that didn't really deliver on the promise of a werewolves set that many expected, and Crimson Vow ended up feeling like the polar opposite. Not only was it too heavily focused on the vampires, but the wedding setting didn't fit with the Innistrad players expected. Nevertheless, the set was packed to the brim with outstanding - and dare I say powerful - mythic rares. Let's go through and rank them all!

• 20. Faithbound Judge // Sinner's Judgment
• 19. Savior of Ollenbock
• 18. Jacob Hauken, Inspector // Hauken's Insight
• 17. Kaya, Geist Hunter
• 16. Cemetery Illuminator
• 15. Volatile Arsonist // Dire-Strain Anarchist
• 14. Cemetery Protector
• 13. Cemetery Desecrator
• 12. Manaform Hellkite
• 11. Cemetery Prowler

Number Ten

I'm not sure many players expected an Olivia card to act as a sweet repeatable reanimator enabler, but this was an immediate hit for Commander players everywhere. In decks that were already reanimation focused, it provided yet another excellent option and she even made for a decent commander herself. She even saw a little bit of Standard play as players tried to find ways to take advantage of her reanimation capabilities.

Number Nine

Henrika Domnathi reads much better than she plays, as she's rather frail and easy to pick off after you invest four mana to play her. If she's allowed to stick around, though, she can pull off some really crazy things and becomes a monstrous beater on her backside. This let her show up a modest amount for a time in Standard, though the eventual printing of Cut Down in Dominaria United would see that play dwindle quite a bit.

Number Eight

Commander players really love doubling things, and getting to double up on any zombie you cast proved immensely popular among players. That's especially true given just how loved the zombie precon deck from Midnight Hunt was, with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver currently sitting as the 19th most popular Commander per EDHREC.com. The card is extremely niche by only appealing to a very specific typal-focused deck and/or player, but for those who want it, it excels.

Number Seven

You might not think much of Cemetery Gatekeeper, but it had a pretty remarkable showing in Standard thanks to the prevalence of Mono-Red Aggro decks. Sure it most frequently showed up in sideboards, but who's counting? The card showed up more heavily than most mythics do and that's more than enough to get it a solid ranking on this list.

Number Six

Avabruck Caretaker was the absolute bane of Crimson Vow Limited. If you saw this card come down, you were pretty much stone-cold dead. Not only was it nigh impossible to deal with on its own, but if it flipped to the Hollowhenge Huntmaster side, good luck interacting with anything. This made it not only an infamously powerful card in Limited, but a devastating option for Commander players everywhere.

Number Five

Players love making tokens and they also love playing enchantment-heavy decks. Hallowed Haunting provided fans of both the opportunity to go absolutely nuts, allowing them to spit out absurd amounts of tokens for every enchantment played. This made it reasonably popular in Standard, but it's had an especially long life in the world of Commander. Players love this card, and it's hard to see it anywhere other than near the top of this list.

Number Four

Black-based midrange and control decks were all the rage in this era - so much so that they got the likes of The Meathook Massacre, Invoke Despair, and Reckoner Bankbuster banned. Sorin the Mirthless provided a fantastic planeswalker option, giving players a way to generate tons of card advantage and create creatures with decent stats. That made this version of Sorin a pretty damn good card throughout his time in Standard and a fantastic Constructed player among cards in this set.

Number Three

Toxrill, the Corrosive has quickly become one of those legends Commander players love to hate. The second it hits the board, it totally takes over the game in sickening fashion, which has made it one of the most salt-inducing cards in the game according to EDHREC.com. The card even saw a modest amount of Standard play in the hands of brewers looking to make use of the powerful creature where possible, but its true strength remains in the world of casual gaming.

Number Two

If you played Standard at all following the release of Crimson Vow, you probably ran into no shortage of Mono-Red Aggro decks. Odds are good that in that time, you probably saw quite a bit of Chandra, Dressed to Kill. This iteration of the iconic planeswalker often went in and out of popularity, but remained a constant player in the top ends of Red decks everywhere throughout her time in Standard, and for good reason. Regular pings, extra mana, and even pseudo card draw made her an easy top mythic of the set.

Number One

Players love dumping tons of lands and Cultivator Colossus goes hard with this. Not only did this make it a massively popular card in Commander to make ramp strategies get particularly out of hand, but it even made a pretty sizable Constructed splash as well. Thanks to the number of different lands Amulet Titan loves to make use of in Modern, the card became an instant staple of the archetype where it continues to be a major player depending on the list used. It's honestly a tough call for which of the top three should be number one, but I'm giving it to this one thanks to its multi-format utility. It just goes to show how much of a real winner this set was for top notch mythic rares overall!

Paige Smith

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